Several next-generation satellite systems built by the U.S. Air Force could rely on smaller, simpler and cheaper designs, says Gen. William Shelton, Air Force Space Command chief. Shelton says that he continues to push for “disaggregation” of U.S. military constellations for the future. This calls for separating payloads once hosted on large satellites among other, smaller systems with an eye toward distributing capability. Shelton said that the future space situational awareness and weather satellites are among those being considered for disaggregation. “It doesn’t take huge optics, nor does it take sophisticated onboard processing to provide [needed] data” for the follow-on to the Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite designed specifically to surveil objects in geosynchronous orbits. Shelton made his comments during a speech at the 28th National Space Symposium here. Shelton also says that the successor to the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft could be satisfied with a “much smaller satellite.” Likewise, he suggests that the nuclear detection payload flying on the GPS satellites could be disaggregated to another system, simplifying the precision navigation and timing satellite design of the future. As officials explore next-generation military satellite communications architecture, they are also examining how to separate the EHF payloads used ...